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Markets were mixed throughout the day Wednesday as investors worked through President Obama’s State of the Union speech, more earnings reports and January’s retail sales figures (which came in well below those of December).

At the end of the day, the Nasdaq came up the big winner, rising 0.3% to 3,196.88, and the S&P 500 also ended up in positive territory, closing fractionally higher at 1,520.33. The Dow Jones Industrial Average could not keep pace, closing down 0.26% at 13,982.91.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) was the best-performing stock in the Dow with 3% gains after the recovering industrial giant said late Tuesday it would sell the remaining 49% interest in NBCUniversal to cable company Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA). Comcast also rose nearly 3% Wednesday.

Disappointing retail sales numbers, coupled with Obama’s proposal to raise the nation’s minimum wage to $9 an hour, weighed on McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD, -1.2%) to the lowest close in the Dow 30.